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If you could turn back time, what would you change?

Hi all,

I often think back on my labour and ponder things I wish I had done differently. Of course we can't turn back time, but others can benefit from what you learned... and there may be the possibility of doing things differently next time.

If you could go back and change one decision you made in regards to your last labour or birth, what would it be?

With my first labour this would be easy to answer as there are so many parts of this I sadly wish I could go back and change.

If I could jump in a time machine then I would get myself to bed at the start of those early contractions. It would have been so useful to have had the extra rest and relaxation at that point.

However, I wanted my baby to be born soon so much that I spent hours walking up and down stairs attempting to help to speed up the contractions. My first baby boy was born 31 hours later (with no sleep in between) I was exhausted and traumatised. I learnt from this that labour will happen when your body is ready. Your body needs to be ready for the cervix to soften and open before your baby is born. Whilst walking in labour can help to re-start diminishing contractions, in many cases it is best to let the body rest when there are no contractions and 'go with' the contractions when they appear again (breathing through the 'tightenings' whilst perhaps visualising a rose bud gently and naturally opening - this is a hypnobirthing technique).

With my most recent birth (my second baby boy - in October) I'm pleased to say there is very little I would change because I learnt from the mistakes (if I can call them that) I made the first time round. We had a doula to support us and I used hypnobirthing relaxing techniques. If there is anything i would have done differently here it would have been to trust my body totally - at the pushing stage my confidence dropped somewhat.